Tips, strategies, and frustrations about how to manage compliance programs more effectively were the dominant theme at Compliance Week 2009, as corporate compliance officers everywhere voiced concerns about the increasing risks their departments must manage—with ever-tighter budgets. The bad economy is a risk in its own right, according to Cynthia Jackson, a partner in the […]
Melissa Klein Aguilar
Posted inInternal Controls
SEC’s Aguilar on 404, IFRS Proxy Access, More
Smaller companies should prepare to become “more familiar” with the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, an SEC commissioner told a group of compliance officers gathered in Washington D.C. The SEC’s cost-benefit study on Section 404 is “close to final” and the anecdotal evidence is that “the hard learning that the […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Commission Posts XBRL FAQs
As part of efforts to help companies and preparers comply with new rules that require financial reports to be filed using XBRL, the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission has posted frequently asked questions regarding the interactive data program. As first noted on FEI’s Financial Reporting Blog, the FAQs represent the views of the […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Feds Give Fuel for Sustainability Efforts
The federal government is starting a full-court press to encourage corporate sustainability, with a wave of tax credits, exemptions, rebates, or grants meant to foster such efforts. Companies with sustainability efforts already in place would do well to take advantage of all the offerings, experts say. And for those companies still debating how they could […]
Posted inTechnology
XBRL: More Plans, Still Little Enthusiasm
The XBRL community is launching a new movement to expand corporations’ use of the data-tagging technology to mergers, reorganizations, and similar transactions—even though Corporate America still hasn’t even started complying with a previous mandate to use XBRL in financial statements. At a summit meeting in New York on May 28, several regulators, financial organizations, and […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
New Staff Interpretations on XBRL, Reg S-T, More
The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Corporation Finance has posted a slew of new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations, including several related to its new XBRL mandate. While the C&DIs related to the SEC’s interactive data rule are published in, and numbered in accordance with, the C&DIs for the section, rule, or […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Survey: Few Tie Exec Comp, Bonuses to Ethics, Compliance
As the debate over executive compensation reform rages on, a recent survey shows most organizations aren’t linking pay to ethical behavior. Companies aren’t doing much to give incentives for ethical behavior through compensation, according to the findings of a survey of 358 compliance and ethics professionals by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Bill to Increase Penalties for Export Control Violations
House lawmakers are mulling legislation that would increase the civil and criminal penalties for violations of the Arms Export Control Act, among other things. The House Foreign Affairs Committee recently approved a bill, introduced by Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.), that would increase the penalties for violations of the Arms Export Control Act to conform […]
Posted inUncategorized
Split Commission Votes to Propose New Access Rule
At long last, the third time may be the charm for proxy access. The SEC voted May 20 to propose a rule allowing shareholders to place nominations for board director in the proxy statement, an idea bitterly opposed by Corporate America. But with a Democratic majority for the first time in eight years, the SEC […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
SEC Strengthens Rules on Staff Securities Trading
On the heels of reports of a criminal investigation into possible insider trading by two Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys, the agency announced measures to beef up its internal compliance program to guard against inappropriate employee securities trading. The announcement follows a May 14 CBS News report of a criminal investigation by the FBI of […]
